Richard Haw's Classic Nikon Repair and Review

Hello, everybody! I’m going to begin my new job 2 days from now. I see it as a new beginning, away from the toxic work environment that I had. This is a time to make new friends and learn new skills. It’s always exciting to join a new team, I love meeting new people so this excites me a lot. Speaking of new beginnings, I’ll show you something today that signaled a new start for one of Nikon’s longest-running lens line. Read this to know what that is.

Introduction:

The Nikkor 135mm f/3.5 Ai was sold from 1977 to 1981. It replaced the older New-Nikkor 135mm f/3.5 Ai which was a popular lens but it could be better. The new lens is smaller, lighter and just as good, if not better than the older one. That’s a difficult act to follow since the New-Nikkor 135mm f/3.5 Ai is a good performer. Nikon succeeded so we now have this lens.

It’s a good-looking lens. Its practical specs and its compactness makes it nice as a travel lens. Despite being small it’s quite dense when held, you can feel how well-built it is, this will certainly survive professional use. It looks very modern for a lens made in the 1970s, too.

Hello, everybody! We are going to finish our Nicca 3S repair article and I’m going show you how to change the shutter curtain the lazy way. This is a fundamental skill that we need to tackle before we get to do this with more expensive cameras and there really is not shortcuts here but to do it first with a Leica clone. In part 1, I showed you how to fix and open up the Nicca 3S for further work inside the camera and we will get into more advanced stuff here so I hope that you will enjoy this.

The Nicca 3S is such a wonderful camera to use. I am loving mine and I am shooting with it more these days. It’s very quirky but it’s fun to use, it’s kind of like a VW Beetle. It is for that relaxing Sunday drive where you can take things slow. More

Hello, everybody! I will start my tour of Ginza for you with my favorite shop here and it’s no other than Sankyo Camera! They have been in business since 1957 and I will say that they are one of the better shops here in Tokyo. The shop is a bit far from where I live but I always make it a point that I visit them at least once a month. The staff here are lovely and I have formed a nice relationship with the people here. Check out what they have in this article that I have made about them.

 Sankyo Camera shopfront is hard to miss, they have their own building where you can see the names of camera companies shown at the facade. The building itself is old but I love coming to this shop because they have one of the best inventories here in Tokyo. What you see at the shop is just a very small fraction of that they really have. It is a real goldmine of goodies for the photography enthusiast and I have found many amazing deals here. I can say that they are the best in the Ginza area when it comes to the overall quality (and quantity) of inventory. While some shops here specialize on one brand, Sakyo Camera’s inventory is more diverse. It’s worth visiting when you’re in town. More

Hello, everybody! I hope that you enjoyed my article on the bootleg Nikon MH-25. I really don’t tolerate bootlegs because it takes away business from company that made the real ones. Clones are more acceptable because they’re not marketed as the real thing. Some of the clones are even better than the original because they have more freedom to improve on the original design while the bootlegs are just there to cheat you out of your money. It is amazing how such “culture” is being tolerated in China (mainland). Today, I am going to show you a clone of a legendary camera and while it’s not as good as the original, it is almost every bit as good and the succeeding models are in fact, better.

Introduction:

Today, we are going to tackle the Nicca 3S! The Nicca 3S was made by the Nicca Camera Co. Ltd. in the post-war years. It was based on the Leica IIIa/c model and is one of their early efforts in producing Leica clones. These clones became possible because Germany had to give up many things as war reparations and the patents for these cameras are part of it. I don’t know how it got to Japanese hands because Japan was also part of the Axis powers but rumor as it that America gave it to Japan because she has the production capability and the price was also right. Capitalism was clearly at play here and this partly explained how this happened. Now, I am sure that you are wondering why a Leica clone is here in a Nikon site. Well, these clones were the basis of much of Japan’s early 35mm cameras. The pre-war Kwanon (Canon) was also a clone so this says a lot. I can’t begin to talk about the Nikon S with mentioning these clones so it can’t be helped. Besides, Nikon began with the consumer side of things with screw-mount lenses for these clones.

I got this Nicca 3S in a junk box at Alps-do Camera for ￥5000. This is a great deal because I got it for more than 2x less than the going rate for these. Niccas tend to cost more due to their reputation here amongst Japanese camera enthusiasts. The exterior of the camera’s in OK shape but I had to deal with the gunk and crunchy rear curtain. It was just waiting for me to discover it and restore it back to working condition, it’s like “The Sword in the Stone” with me as the boy Arthur and this camera as Excalibur. More

Hello, everybody! I am currently not feeling well today because of hay fever or the cold. I hate Winter but it’s something that I need to put-up with every year. Good thing we’re using a fancy heater that I bought last week. It’s very good despite being cheap and compact. I can now warm the room and work on repairing my junk gear comfortably. Nikon made plenty of classic lenses that can be had for cheap lately and most of them are small but capable. I’ll show you one such lens today, it is really popular and is considered to be a real classic.

Introduction:

The Nikkor 28mm f/2.8 Ai-S debuted in 1981 to replace the old Nikkor 28mm f/2.8 Ai. The older lens is a great performer so Nikon had to surpass its performance when it’s time to update it. Nikon did that by adding CRC to it which also enabled this to focus even closer. It resulted in an excellent lens, it now has achieved a near-legendary status. It remained in-production for a really long time, Nikon only discontinued it recently in 2020. There aren’t plenty of lenses who could boast about having a 4-decade-long production run. Engineers and scientists find it an invaluable tool so there was always a need for it. Its ability to take great photos when mounted in-reverse along with having an aperture ring made it a favorite for extreme-macrophotography. Without it, you wouldn’t have the ability to use it properly with bellows.

The Nikkor 28mm f/2.8 Ai-S is a compact lens. It looks deceptively simple but it’s one of Nikon’s most advanced lenses when it came out in 1981. This lens uses CRC so this can focus very close while maintain its sharpness at closer distances. This is one of the reasons it’s popular for videographers because 28mm is a handy focal length and the ability to focus really close at 0.2m is very useful. You could even shoot bugs at this distance.

Hello, everybody! I am going to introduce to you one of my favorite shops here in Tokyo and it’s no other than Fujiya Camera! We moved to this neighborhood just because I want to be able to come here often. Fujiya Camera is considered by many to be the best camera shop here in Tokyo when it comes to used equipment and service. They are only rivaled by another shop but Fujiya Camera is always ahead because their prices are cheaper. For travelers, you can avail of the 8% discount because you don’t have to pay VAT, just show your passport at the counter and they will know what to do. They also accept credit cards and installments. I was tempted to buy a Nikon D850 here because they have a 72-month 0% installment plan! Good thing I got cheap and skipped.

This is the storefront of Fujiya Camera’s main shop (本店). The ground level has cameras and gear from Fujifilm, Sony, Olympus, Canon, Pentax, Panasonic, etc. They sell both used and new gear here. They are very well-stocked so I’m sure you can find something nice. More

Hello, everybody! Today, I found some nice things at the “￥100 shop”. I found some good rubber bands and some naphtha for my camera repair. I usually buy tools, solvents and other small things there. Their quality isn’t great but they’re fine for my purpose. I have to save money because I am getting taxed more in my current job and penny-pinching is going to be normal for me from now on. Speaking of ￥100, I’ll show you one thing that I got for ￥100 and it’s something that I will consider to be a real “junkpot”.

Introduction:

Today, I am going to introduce to you the Nikkormat EL! This is going to be the first in my new Nikkormat series (Nikomat in Japan) and I’ll aim to cover every production model so long as it’s financially possible because running this blog isn’t cheap. The Nikkormat EL is Nikon’s first true electronic camera and it has Aperture Priority as its automatic mode. It was introduced around 1972 and it quickly become the backup camera of professionals. I would like to point out that this is very typical of the Nikkormat series of cameras, they’re so tough that pros love using them as backup cameras. One of our readers (Jerry) told me a story about a pro who somehow shorted his Nikon F3 while shooting at Hong Kong but he had a backup camera, one that will not short easily and that is a Nikkormat FT3. They are legendary for their toughness and the key to this is their solid build and the reliable and tough shutter by Copal, the Copal Square shutter. Despite being made and marketed to amateurs and prosumers, the Nikkormat is every bit as tough as the F-series and I will even go further by saying that the Nikkormats are even tougher because it has less parts to go wrong. “Simple is best”, that is my motto in life.

It’s pretty shabby but still presentable in some way. The most important thing is all of its functions still work properly. It’s an electronic camera so the shutter is less likely to give the wrong speed since there’s less mechanical parts and the timing is governed by a tiny quartz crystal (I suppose) within it.

Hello, everybody! Today, I am going to warn you about the fake Nikon MH-25 chargers in the market today. Nikon repair expert David Hilos shared some images from one that he had taken apart and we will visually compare what’s different between the real deal and the fake mainland Chinese knock-off. Thanks to David for letting us share his pictures!

You can easily see what’s different between the real one and the knock-off. The real one has a slide-lock on one end but the cheap knock-off doesn’t. The shape is also different, it is also evident that the real one appears to be made from better materials. You can tell by simply looking at the LED, print and finish that the fake one is inferior. More

Hello, everybody! It’s a very cold evening now and it’s forecasted to snow in the coming hours. I hope that you keep yourselves warm this weekend and drink plenty of fluids and vitamin C. I used to be resistant to minor illnesses but age has caught on to me and I easily get sick. Some old people are tough despite living for more than 7 decades so age clearly is not a problem here. Speaking of tough oldies, I’ll show you one tough lens that can still deliver despite being around 70 years old. Sit back and enjoy, this is the Mick Jagger of telephoto Nikkors (who will outlive us all and never seem to die)!

Introduction:

The topic of this post is the amazing Nikkor-Q.C 13.5cm f/3.5! This was really popular back in the days because it’s Nikon’s longest for their rangefinder cameras. 135mm is the upper-limit for many rangefinder cameras because focusing a longer lens is not only an exercise in futility but it’s also going to be too big for the smallish lens mounts of most 35mm camera systems back in the day. Its predecessor is the Nikkor-Q.C 13.5cm f/4 and that is one of the original Nikkors made for consumer photography right after the war. It was heavily-based on the Zeiss original but it was short-lived, that was replaced shortly by this after only a few years. The Nikkor-Q.C 13.5cm f/3.5 improved upon its predecessor’s design by giving it a slightly faster maximum speed. It came in different versions and mounts and it can be very difficult to near-impossible to acquire every one of them. I’ll show you some of them in this post and on a succeeding post showcasing a different, earlier version of this lens. This lens is the first in a long line of 135/3.5 lenses that was made until recently with the Nikkor 135mm f/3.5 Ai-S being the last model.

These are lovely lenses. and they are very well-made from solid brass. The chrome one came in the Leica L39 mount. Many people preferred Nikkors over their Leicas because they had better contrast, harder coatings and the Nikkors were cheaper. The people at TIME magazine brought Nikon to the limelight by using them to cover the Korean War. It gave Nikon a very good reputation because their gear didn’t freeze in the bad winters of the Korean peninsula and this gave Nikon her reputation for reliability and toughness.

Hello, everybody! Today, I am going to introduce to you a hip place for photographers. It is a small hole-in-the-wall type of shop called Void Lens. The shop is kind of new and they just started around a year ago in the trendy neighborhood of Koenji. It’s a great place for street photographers to hang-out and chill. They mostly cater to the point-and-shoot kind of cameras but they also have some TLR and SLR cameras, too. If you are in town, please visit Void Lens and I am sure that it’s going to be worth your time!

This is the storefront of Void Lens. It’s very easy to miss because it’s situated between the bars and restaurants and you will never think that there’s anything camera-related here. There’s no signboards to tell you what shop it is but the cameras caught my attention. More